The Eye-Opening Truth
by EchoResonance
Summary: Nunally touched her brother's body as he lay, dying, in a pool of his own blood, and she saw his thoughts. There were too many for her to keep to herself, and one very important memory for one very important knight...She'll tell him the truth. How will he take it?
1. Bear it Together

_**Sorry guys, I know it's been for-freaking-EVER since I last uploaded, but school had kept me so busy, you wouldn't even believe! But I'm back now, and I'll be publishing a lot over the summer, I promise! You know the drill, I'm sure. R&R**_

Kallen felt hot tears streaking down her cheeks as she stared at Nunally. The young girl also wept. They wept together, for the martyr who had intentionally drawn the world's hatred. The martyr who had ordered his best friend to kill him, so that the world he destroyed could then be rebuilt into that "gentler place".

They wept for Lelouch vi Britannia. No, they wept for Lelouch Lamperouge, the young man who had sought to create a peaceful world for his baby sister. He knew that, in order to rebuild the world, it first had to be broken down, and at the end of his life, he had given up being the man to do both. He had been content to die with the world's hatred on his shoulders, and with Suzaku's promise to rebuild it in his place. Lelouch had been content to die with no one knowing the great kindness that had truly driven his actions.

But Nunally knew. As she had touched her big brother's dying body, images had flashed through her mind. Every single piece of Lelouch's final plan, right down to his telling Suzaku to kill him. And the knowledge was too much for her to bear on her own, so she had found Kallen, knowing she could confide in the Black Knights' Ace.

From the moment that Lelouch had _apparently_ betrayed the Black Knights, Kallen had insisted that she hated him. She thought that she wanted to kill him for using her and everyone else. And yet, when the man disguised as Zero had run Lelouch through, she had been horrified. More than that, she had been heartbroken. All of the Black Knights had been, in that moment, for no matter what had happened, Lelouch, as Zero, had led them to astounding, impossible victories. He had performed miracles for them. He could not simply _die_ by the hand of a man dressed as his alias. Not when he had proven impossible to capture, let alone kill.

Yet, he was dead, and it had been by his own design.

_I guess that makes sense_, Kallen thought brokenly as she held Lelouch's little sister. The sister he had always adored. _He could only be killed if he allowed himself to be. Everything went exactly as he planned. Just like always. _

"I guess he really did know what he was doing," said Kallen thickly. She stroked Nunally's long, pale brown hair, the way she had sometimes seen Lelouch do if his beloved sister had been saddened or scared by something.

"He did!" Nunally cried. "And the world will never know everything he did for it! They'll never remember him as anything but a tyrant!"

"We know," Kallen murmured. "We know. You and the Black Knights _were_ his world, the only one he cared about. We'll remember him as our savior. But in the end, Lelouch didn't really care how people remembered him anymore, did he? He did what he had to do in order to get the results he wanted. I think…Nunally, I think he was glad to die.

A second flood of tears began as Kallen continued.

"He destroyed. He made it his duty to destroy, so that Suzaku would build. He hurt everyone he cared about, because if they became his enemies, his goal could be reached. Nunally, I think his heart broke inside every time he acted towards the end. The necessary measures he took were tearing him apart. Death was…probably a relief."

There was a moment of silence, in which the young girls cried. Then—

"Kallen?" Nunally said softly. Kallen looked down at the small girl with eyes just a bit paler than her late brother's. Funny, the things one noticed when distraught and missing somebody you never thought you'd miss.

"Yeah?" she answered.

"I think you're right. He wasn't afraid of death. He was smiling. When Suzaku stabbed him, and then when he fell, he looked happy. He died with a smile."

Kallen felt her lips curve up in a sad smile, tears still falling. She had been too far away to see Lelouch's expression when he died, but she had a feeling that Nunally was right. Lelouch always smiled, sometimes even laughed, when things went his way. Which happened a lot. More often than the angst-y teenage boy would probably ever have admitted to, concerning his life. His plans always worked.

"I'm glad that my big brother had friends like you and Suzaku," said the young, crippled girl. "Friends who understood his heart so well."

A sob finally tore free from Kallen's throat, and once that first one escaped, they just kept coming, wrenching from her chest with painful intensity.

"There was one other thing I saw when I touched big brother," said Nunally after some time, wiping her eyes.

"Yeah?" Kallen sniffed loudly, and rather unattractively.

"Yes. And I have to tell Suzaku. Maybe after he hears it, he can forgive Lelouch."

"It's about Euphy, isn't it?" Kallen choked.

"Yes."

_**Chapter one, done! I hope that was to your liking? I should have warned you, I wrote this fic to attack your feels! I'm shameless, I know.**_


	2. Princess Massacre

_**Chapter 2, and I love you all!**_

"I wish to speak with Zero privately."

"Of course, Lady Nunally."

"Kallen Kozuki, you may come as well."

"Yes, Lady Nunally."

The two chosen persons fell into step on either side of the young girl's wheelchair, following her silently down a corridor attached to the throne room. Kallen kept her gaze fixed ahead, because she knew that if she looked over at Suzaku wearing Zero's mask, her fragile hold on her emotions would break completely, and she could not let that happen yet.

Suzaku stared straight ahead, sure that if he looked at Kallen, he would see her screaming, tear-streaked face as he plunged his sword to the hilt in his best friend's body, or that if he looked at Nunally, he would see her horrified, disbelieving face as her favorite brother fell from his pedestal into a pool of his own blood. His tears may be invisible behind the mask, but he could not let his composure snap. He just couldn't.

Nunally looked determinedly ahead, needing to reach her private chambers before speaking and knowing that if she looked at either of her companions, she would not be able to remain silent.

"Here," she said hoarsely, reaching out and opening a door. Zero and Kallen followed her inside wordlessly. The room was plain, with two couches and a table as the only furnishings. The moment the door was closed behind them, Nunally turned to Zero, and got straight to the point.

"Suzaku, remove my brother's mask," she said without preamble.

The man in the cloak froze in shock. The entire world thought he was _dead_. Could Nunally truly know it was him? Or was it another of her shots in the dark, a mere guess?

"Suzaku, please."

No, her tone said that she was quite certain. Very aware of Kallen's presence, the lean brunette pulled Zero's mask off of his head.

"How did you know?" he asked roughly.

"I touched Lelouch as he was dying," she said calmly. Strongly, even. "When I did, a flood of his memories washed over me. Including the time the two of you orchestrated his death."

Suzaku looked away, a hard lump forming in his throat.

"Suzaku."

His emerald gaze flicking to where Kallen stood steadfast. Her expression was hard. Same old Kallen Kozuki.

"You asked Lelouch why he killed Princess Euphymia, right?"

He nodded, that lump growing larger.

"And you asked him if he used Geass on her to make her kill the Japanese, right?"

"I did," he said hoarsely.

"And what did he tell you?"

"That he used Euphy to gain support from the other Japanese," he said quietly. "And that she was just another of his pawns."

_But he was lying_, Suzaku though. _I know he was_.

"He lied," Kallen said bluntly, echoing his thoughts. "Nunally knows the truth. That was among the memories she saw."

Suzaku looked at the crippled girl sharply. She nodded.

"Do you want to know the _real_ reason it happened?"

The new Zero stared at her, his throat working furiously as he considered. Slowly, he nodded.

"When brother went to council with Euphy, he had every intention of joining her cause," said Nunally very softly.

"He made her kill hundreds of Japanese people," said Suzaku bitterly.

"It was—"

"Suzaku," said Kallen, cutting across Nunally. "Do you hate Lelouch?"

He wanted to say yes. He should have said yes. Everything would have been simpler, easier, better, if he could just hate Lelouch for everything that he had done. And yet—

"No," Suzaku sighed. "I never could actually hate him. I could be pissed beyond belief, but I couldn't hate him. Why?"

"Because if you really did, what Nunally said next wouldn't matter," she said, voice as hard as her expression. She gestured for Nunally to continue.

"It was an accident, Suzaku," she said softly. "Around that time, Lelouch had been finding it harder and harder to keep his Geass in check. He could say something without meaning it, and someone would have to do it anyway. He'd taken off Zero's mask, and was just talking to Euphy. He was explaining his power to her, and he just…he just meant to give her an example. He was just telling her that if he told her to kill all of the Japanese, she would have to, whether she wanted to or not." Nunally's voice began to tremble. "He didn't realize that he'd lost control of his Geass until it was too late. He could only use his Geass on a person once, so he couldn't take back any orders he gave, regardless if he meant them or not. Killing Euphy…it was the only way he could stop her. It broke his heart, Suzaku. It really did."

If a pin had dropped out in the hall, all three of the young adults in that room would have heard it. Suzaku was as still as a statue, his emerald eyes fixed with a dazed sort of horror on Nunally's amethyst gaze. Her eyes were noticeably paler than her brother's, Suzaku realized. Lelouch's had been a deeper, much more vibrant purple. They'd been covered by Zero's mask for a very long time.

The knight's fingers began to tremble as his mind slowly worked though its shock to digest what Nunally had told him so bluntly. Lelouch had meant to join Euphy. He'd lost control of his Geass without realizing it. The order he gave his sister hadn't _been_ an order. The only way to keep his mistake from spreading any farther was to kill Euphy. It had broken his heart. Why was this…so easy to believe, and yet so hard?

It made as much sense as the Zero Requiem, but it…The Zero Requiem just hadn't…hurt as much.

_**Finding out you were completely wrong about your best friend is…really painful, isn't it?**_


	3. Friendship Outlasts Death

Without knowing how he got there, Suzaku found that his knees had hit the floor. The shaking in his hands had begun to infect the rest of his body, creeping up his arms, past his shoulders, to his torso, and both north and south from there. The blind fury, bordering on pure, true contempt, that he had held for his own best friend was…wrong.

"I—I didn't know," he choked. "He didn't—he never told me."

Nunally and Kallen watched him, tears beginning to gather in their own eyes. The Black Knight Ace took the younger girl's hand and squeezed her tiny fingers firmly when she found them shaking. Nunally was a master of composure, but even she couldn't be entirely calm when telling her late brother's best friend that there had been a colossal misunderstanding between the two of them.

"Why didn't he just tell me?" Suzaku whispered brokenly, the first hot tears sliding down his face. "If he had just told me the truth…Why didn't he tell me?!"

He ended somewhere near an agonized scream that made Nunally glad that the rooms in the building were all soundproof.

"Lelouch didn't think it would make any difference," said Nunally.

"He thought it wouldn't matter to you," added Kallen quietly. "That you would just think he was making an excuse."

"How could he think that?"

"By killing Euphy, he thought he put himself beyond your forgiveness. He didn't think the reasons would make any difference at that point," answered Nunally.

Suzaku made a sound somewhere between a sob and a laugh.

"Lelouch had a habit of calling everybody else fools," he whispered. "Usually, he was right. But…he was the biggest fool this world has ever known. Maybe that's why we were such good friends. I'm a fool, too."

The tears were streaming thick and fast down his face now as wave after wave of guilt crashed over him. Lelouch, the student. Lelouch, the leader of the rebellion. Lelouch, the knight for justice. Lelouch, the emperor. Lelouch, the masochist, the martyr. Lelouch, his very best friend. The man that would _always_ be his very best friend, and the man he had hurt and driven back in spite of that.

Lelouch, the person who would never be forgiven for his sins, because no one would ever know that he committed them in order to wash away everybody else's.

Suzaku had let Lelouch die believing that he was completely beyond redemption, that even his best friend could never, ever forgive him.

"What kind of friend was I to Lelouch?" he wondered weakly. "I killed him. The only reason I could do it was because of Euphy. If I had known…If he had just told me…"

"He wanted you to kill him," said Kallen. Despite her tears, her voice was strong. "It was his choice. He didn't try to earn your forgiveness, Suzaku, so you can't really blame yourself for not giving it to him."

The brunette said nothing. He just knelt on the carpeted floor, hands fisted in his lap, tears flowing unchecked down his pained features.

"What about now?"

He blinked and glanced up. Nunally was looking at him, tears still falling down her round, porcelain cheeks.

"What?" he mumbled.

"What about now? Can you forgive him now that you know the truth?"

That lump in his throat was back. Had it ever actually left?

"For what?" he said thickly. "The only thing I held against him was Euphy; the Princess Massacre. Now that I find out that—that it…It wasn't something that needed forgiveness. There was nothing, really, _nothing_ to forgive!"

"That's not quite right," said Kallen gently. "Regardless of the reason, he did kill Euphy, and he did lie. He definitely though that there was something to forgive. The question is: can you?"

Suzaku stared at Kallen for a long moment.

Once upon a time, eight years ago, he had been the only one who could see into Lelouch's heart so easily. It used to be only he that could read his best friend's every action, every expression. Yet, he had fallen out of practice, and others had stepped up. Kallen was one person who had managed to grow close to Lelouch. He was grateful that, in his absence as Lelouch's friend, Kallen had slid into place as another person who could understand him, along with Shirley and Rivalz and the others.

Lelouch had lived a hard life, and Suzaku hadn't truly been there for him for half of it. Still, it turned out his friend had not been entirely alone, and for that he was grateful. That emotion right there was the only answer he needed.

"Yes," Suzaku said, so softly it was a wonder the girls could hear him. "Yes, I can forgive him."

"Me, too," said Kallen, smiling through her tears.

In the next moment, she was kneeling beside Suzaku, and they were in each other's arms as they lamented the loss of a great leader, a loving brother, a good friend, and the bravest person they had ever known. Nunally slid from her chair to join them and they pulled her into their embrace, knowing her pain was the worst out of all of them.

How long they knelt weeping in each others' arms, they weren't sure, but eventually the tears slowed, and they pulled back. Kallen reached behind Suzaku; when her hand came back to her lap, it held Zero's mask. The mask that had made Lelouch famous as a mysterious and powerful leader of the rebellion. The mask that he had since passed on to his best friend Suzaku, knowing that the brunette would be a perfect knight for justice.

"Make him proud, Suzaku," Kallen murmured, handing her friend that sacred object. "Live up to Zero's legacy. Rebuild the world to be the peaceful place that Lelouch wanted for us all."

Suzaku nodded, his features hardening to steely determination as he accepted the mask from Kallen. He would do it. He would do the one thing his friend had always wanted, the thing he had died for.

"I will, Kallen," he promised.

"Lelouch is already proud of us, I think," said Nunally. "I wonder if he's happy, wherever he is?"

"I'm sure he is, Nunally," Kallen replied.

Nunally smiled and wiped the last lingering tears from her delicate cheeks. The other two did the same, and when they all looked at each other, they couldn't help but laugh. Once, they had all been enemies, yet there they were, hugging and crying for the one thing they all had in common.

"Put on your mask, Zero," Kallen grinned. "It's time to face the world again."

"As you command, Lady Kallen," Suzaku chuckled, and pulled the black covering over his nose before sliding the mask back on. Kallen laughed.

"Uhm, guys?" said Nunally.

"What is it, Nunally?" they said together.

"Can someone help me back into my chair?"

_**End! I hope you enjoyed it! Please please please, R&R my lovely readers! **___


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